Eating in the Underworld

February 15, 2003
Having won the Center for the Book Arts's chapbook contest last year, Zucker follows up with her first full-length collection, inspired by the Greek myth of Persephone. Yet while they use ancient myths for their source, these poems deal with language and life in a modern way: "I will sell my long hair for two mother-of-pearl/ buttons, / unclasp my heart from its open bird cage/ but not put desire away." Evocative and mysterious, the poems hint at the far-away-"Before I leave I will turn some of these young girls/ to birds. So they might fly"-and sometimes describe the art of poetry itself-"I break lines, pulverize parchment/ swallow God's name/ enter the inverted ziggurat but cannot/ hide in architecture." The titles can be repetitive and distracting with their bracketed subtitles (e.g., "Diary [The First Seed]"), but the poems flow and involve the reader in the writer's journey, whether to the real underworld or not. Zucker indeed leads us "swimming through chaos to find the world." Recommended for most collections.-Doris Lynch, Monroe Cty. P.L., Bloomington, IN

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